This invention relates to coin management devices and is more particularly concerned with such devices which include a tubular device for receiving and aligning the coins flat surface to flat surface and a tray device into which the aligned coins are arranged to ascertain their accumulated value, preparatory to rolling or storage. The invention is also concerned with a method for managing coins utilizing the devices embodying the invention.
Many complex mechanical, electrical, electronic, electromechanical and other kinds of devices have been conceived to handle, count and store coins. Such devices are usually expensive, require special knowledge or take up excessive space. The present device and method is intended primarily for relatively small business operations where the entrepreneur doesn't have the time, interest or investment necessary to acquire complicated and sophisticated equipment, but is most interested in an easy and efficient system for arranging, totaling the accumulated values and storing coins. The invention deals with a system for handling coins which have already been segregated by denomination in a cash register drawer or the like, which has separate compartments for each coin denomination.
The present invention utilizes an elongated transparent tubular device of a diameter larger than the coins intended to be handled which has a dumping mouth midway its length for receiving and removing coins of the specific denomination. One end of this mouth communicates with the tubular device along its longitudinal axis and the other end of the mouth is open and flared outwardly. This tubular device is designed to permit a handful of coins of predetermined denomination to be hand-scooped up from a compartment in a cash register drawer and to be randomly dumped into the mouth and enter the tubular device, whereupon the tube is manipulated by rocking and jiggling action to align the coins which entered the mouth and tubular device in a random and jumbled fashion to be arranged in line flat surface to flat surface in the tubular device.
Once the coins are aligned, they are removed from the tube upon grasping a number of aligned coins at their opposed flat surfaces through the open mouth and placing these coins in a special tray. This tray has a plurality of channels, and these channels are each sized to receive a predetermined number of coins of a given denomination. For example, there may be a channel which will accommodate forty quarters, which is the size of a $10 bankers roll of such coins. The tray may bear a series of indicia adjacent the channel to indicate the value of coins accumulated in the channel, making the totaling of the value of the accumulated coins very simple and quick. There may be similar channels for coins of usual denominations, such as separate channels for nickels, dimes, quarters, halves and pennies, each of a diameter preferably just slightly larger than the size of the selected coin, and each having accumulator indicia arranged adjacent the channel.
A novel device embodying the invention may also have opposed legs which may be used to elevate one end of the tray, permitting the coins to be gravity biased toward the lower end of the tray, thus making it easier to ascertain the accumulated value of the coins, but with an elevation which is not so high as to allow coins to fall from the channels. Also, the channels may be oriented in parallel groups or in parallel and series.
Preferably, opposed ends along the axis of each of the coin receiving channels have a space which is intended for entry of the thumb and forefinger or middle finger of the user to grasp aligned coins arranged in the channel under pressure at their opposed ends. A bankers coin roll blank of suitable size, such as the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,432, in open condition, may be laid over the aligned coins in the tray channel, and its ends overlaying the roll may be squeezed together from a point at about the centerline of the aligned coins, and the coins in the blank wrapper are lifted from the tray, whereupon the roll is closed and locked in the manner described in Pat. No. 4,183,432.
The coins in the tray may also be rolled in other conventional fashion too, using flat wrapper which may be formed into bankers rolls. Coins may also be packaged in paper coin shells, utilizing the tubular device embodying the present invention in a manner hereafter described.
In some situations, it is desirable to leave the sorted and counted coins stored in the channels of the tray. For example, in an arcade, restaurant or retail store operation, or where there are multiple cashiers, requiring a volume of coins for making change or other purposes, frequently the coins are sorted and counted and removed to a safe place, usually at the end of the day, and replaced for use the next business day. In these situations, a number of trays with like coin sorting and accumulating channels may be used, and these trays may each have interlocking means to permit the trays to be stacked for easy handling and moving from place to place, for example, from a cashier's station to a safe and then returned to the cashier.